Cheat for Ancient Land of Y's (GS) - Broderbund/Kyodai by Jim Maricondo (The Mouse2 - AppleLink PE), January 1990 I really like the monthly schedule of Computist now, and if the tabloid format means more stuff per issue, I'm for it! I've decided to screw going by the alias of "Chaos" and am back to my real name. Who needs an alias at age 14?? No, I'm not some CompuNerd; I'm popular; I'm goin out with girls; computing is a hobby, remember that. And YES! I've finally been able to crack some stuff by myself! Cheats have always been easy, but I've finally cracked my first disk! Unfortunately, even though I wrote up all this stuff last January, it got stashed and forgotten about. Even tho there already is a crack for The Ancient Land Of Y's, I hope you publish this one too, as it is actually better (less bytes to change!) than Brian Troa's, whom I always considered to be the best cracker! While he has better commentary, my patch is shorter.. Cheat for Ancient Land of Y's (GS) - Broderbund/Kyodai by Jim Maricondo (The Mouse2 - AppleLink PE), January 1990 After playing this game for awhile, and not getting anywhere fast, I decided that my time would be better spent cheating! I haven't tried to figure out what everything in your saved character means, but it is easy to, say, boost your gold into the quintiple digits! Or your experience! So, I first saved a game on the /USER disk and then booted up Block Warden and followed the saved game file. Note: the name you specified to save the game under is not actually saved under that specific name, rather it is saved by the name you selected with '.DAT' added! This cheat needs Block Warden! As with all data stored in hexidecimal on disks, the numbers are stored in reverse, E.G. the hex number $5020 would be stored 20 50 on the disk! First, the locations of things in the saved game file: Rel.Byte Description Notes ------------------------- $90-1 Max. H.P. It's best not to change this, let it automatically be changed when you advance a level! $92-3 Your H.P. Change this to the same as Max. H.P. for best results! $94-5 Experience Your current experience. I usually change this to ONE under Exp. Needed and then run the game and let it move me to the next level! $96-7? Exp. Needed Experience needed for level advancement. It's best not to change this! $9A-B Gold Don't get to money hungry! Once your gold reaches 65535 (hex $FFFF) and you get one more piece of gold, it starts back at 0! So, I usually set my gold to 55000 (hex $D6D8) so that when I get some more gold in the game, it doesn't overflow to 0! So, for those of you with little experience with sector editors and hexidecimal, if you want 55000 gold, stick a $D8 in $9A and a $D6 in $9B (reverse hex). $9C-D Strength Changing this with Block Warden and then loading the level into the game gives you what you had before you edited the character! It is probably because it is related to your current level and inventory and health, so I wouldn't recommend modifying it! $9E-F Defense See notes for Strength. A quick way to convert from hexidecimal to decimal is to use the Monitor to turn on the "Visit Montior" CDA built into ROM 01 and greater GS's as was described for the Gnarly Golf cheat. First, you'll need to access the monitor by turning on the computer with all drives empty and recieving the "Check startup device." At that time, hit control reset to get to BASIC. Then, from BASIC, at the "]" prompt, type "call-151" and hit return. You will be placed into the monitor, as denoted by the "*" prompt. At the "*" prompt, type "#" and press return. The "Visit Monitor" CDA is now installed. Now you should boot up block warden and follow your saved game file. During your editing, should you quickly want to convert between decimal and (non-reverse hex; normal hex) hexidecimal you can hit Open Apple-Control-Escape to get the CDA menu. Select the "Visit Monitor" CDA and you will be placed into the monitor. If you want to convert from hexidecimal to decimal type the hex number you want to convert, followed by a "=" at the "*" prompt. E.G. if you wanted to convert $8000 hex to decimal, type at the * prompt: "8000=" and press return! It's that easy! To convert from decimal to hexidecimal type a "=" at the * prompt and then the decimal number to convert, followed by a return! To exit from the monitor and back to Block Warden, press -Y and then press return and you will be back at the CDA menu! Select Quit and you are exactly where you left off! What I used to do (before I got so far into the game that it was unnecessary) was quickly restore my health to the fullest, set my gold to 50000 and my experience to one less than the required amount for level advancement. Then I'd play the game, get one experience point to be placed onto the next level and re-edit your character, and on, and on, and on! (just don't get TOO carried away!) Once you get far in the game tho, cheating becomes unnecessary, except maybe to boost your health!